The Dred Scott Case

Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Race and Law

David Thomas Konig

Publication Year: 2010

In 1846 two slaves, Dred and Harriet Scott, filed petitions for their freedom in the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. As the first true civil rights case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford raised issues that have not been fully resolved despite three amendments to the Constitution and more than a century and a half of litigation. The Dred Scott Case: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Race and Law presents original research and the reflections of the nation’s leading scholars who gathered in St. Louis to mark the 150th anniversary of what was arguably the most infamous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision that held that African Americans “had no rights” under the Constitution and that Congress had no authority to alter that galvanized Americans and thrust the issue of race and law to the center of American politics. This collection of essays revisits the history of the case and its aftermath in American life and law. In a final section, the present-day justices of the Missouri Supreme Court offer their reflections on the process of judging and provide perspective on the misdeeds of their nineteenth-century predecessors who denied the Scotts their freedom.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright Page

contents

acknowledgments

Bringing together the symposium that produced these essays was a collaborative
effort. We are especially grateful for the financial support provided by
Dean Kent Syverud of the Washington University Law School and Dean Edward
Macias of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and by generous alumni....

introduction

No symbol of St. Louis looms more dominant than its famous Gateway
Arch, which since its opening in 1967 has afforded more than forty
million visitors an expansive view of the middle of the North American
continent. It was at the confluence of two great river systems—the Missouri...

part one

one Constitutional Law and the Legitimation of History

Roger Taney was not the first judge to seek legitimacy for an opinion
by drawing on the authority of the past, and his “opinion of the court”
in Dred Scott v. Sandford only continued a long tradition of applying—
some would say, manipulating—the historical method to reach desired...

two Dred Scott versus the Dred Scott Case

News of the decision reached St. Louis before the end of the day. On
March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney gathered the U.S. Supreme
Court to deliver the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. The result was
telegraphed throughout the country all afternoon: “The act of Congress...

part two

three John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Dred Scott, and the Problem of Constitutional Evil

Kenneth Stampp concluded the preface to his And the War Came by
asking readers, “How many more generations of black men should have
been forced to endure life in bondage in order to avoid its costly and violent
end?”1 Almost forty years later, Evan Carton concluded his Patriotic...

four The Legacy of the Dred Scott Case

In Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s Dred Scott decision, a defense of
slavery became the essential condition of constitutional government and
national unity in the United States. Republicans uniformly denounced the
decision and held to their founding principle that the municipal limits of...

five An Exaggerated Legacy

Scholars frequently cite Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s majority
opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) as the birthplace of substantive due
process, one of the most controversial concepts in American constitutional
law.1 This concept holds that the Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth...

six Emancipation and Contract Law

In 1859, in United States v. Amy, Chief Justice Roger Taney was asked to
rule on a claim by a Virginia slave owner that it was a violation of the Fifth
Amendment to send his slave to prison.1 Amy had allegedly stolen a letter
from the post office and was prosecuted under an 1825 federal law that...

part three

seven Dred Scott, Human Dignity, and the Quest for a Culture of Equality

Much has been said and written about the Dred Scott decision over
the past 150 years. We are all familiar with the basic holding of the case—
the U.S. Supreme Court’s declaration that black persons descended from
slaves, whether free or not, could never become citizens of the United...

A couple of years ago, I was in the lobby of the Hotel du Pont in
Wilmington, Delaware, one of the most lavish hotels from America’s
Gilded Age. It has rich woodwork, mosaic and terrazzo floors, handcrafted
chandeliers, and gilded hallways. It is the annual meeting place for many...

nine Unmasking the Lie

Although it is possible for a nation to deny its history, it is not
possible for it to escape responsibility for the consequences of that history.
A significant part of America’s history consists of the sordid practice of
black chattel slavery. Integral to that peculiar institution was the Supreme...

ten Whose Ancestors Were Imported into This Country and Sold as Slaves?

My observations are inspired by the legal tenor of the vast majority
of contributions to this volume. As an African American linguist I find
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s opinion in the Dred Scott case to be extraordinary
and ironic. It is extraordinary because of his ability to restrict
his ruling to a single race, namely, “Negroes.” His opinion, ironically...

eleven Considering Reparations for Dred Scott

Among the many tragedies of our country’s history of slavery is that
it left a deep, virtually inexhaustible well of injury. There is no way to
provide compensation for each injury of the past or for the unspeakable
crimes of brutalization that took place under slavery.1 And those crimes...

part four

twelve Lessons for Judges from Scott v. Emerson

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision1 has been examined extensively,
from 1857 until today.2 The predecessor decision of the Missouri Supreme
Court in Scott v. Emerson3 has not been analyzed as comprehensively,
although Chief Justice Roger B. Taney concluded the Court’s opinion by...

thirteen Missouri Law, Politics, and the Dred Scott Case

To get the Missouri politics of the Dred Scott era, let us fast forward a
few years to the Civil War. Between 1861 and 1865, many states experienced
what many people to the south of St. Louis call the “war between the
states” or, more pointedly, “the war of northern aggression.” As a border...

fourteen The Strange Career of Dred Scott

This book emerged from a conference commemorating the one hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, held, appropriately
in St. Louis at Washington University. Dred Scott’s case began in St. Louis,
of course, and after ultimately losing his appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court...

select bibliography

contributors

Austin Allen is Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston-Adam Arenson is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas John Baugh is Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences at Duane Benton is Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Judge, Supreme Court of Missouri, 1991–2004; Chief Justice, 1997–1999....

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.